


The Assistant

by V6ilill



Series: Shooting star falls fast, falls far [6]
Category: The Outer Worlds (Video Game)
Genre: Autistic Captain (The Outer Worlds), Character Study, Ellie and ADA are Best Friends, Gen, Headcanon, Introspection, One Shot, Post-Game, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:53:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27524152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/V6ilill/pseuds/V6ilill
Summary: Ellie helps Phineas revive the colonists.Note: takes place after Dartboard, does not contain spoilers for it
Relationships: ADA & Ellie Fenhill, Ellie Fenhill & Phineas Welles, The Captain & Ellie Fenhill, The Captain & Phineas Welles
Series: Shooting star falls fast, falls far [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1560577
Kudos: 2





	The Assistant

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from a really awesome Amanda Palmer song, but I'm not putting the lyrics because they don't really fit. Please tell me how badly I'm butchering Ellie's character in the comments

The Hope is very clean, all white and gray and empty of life. The colonists are safely tucked away in their little cryopods, hidden in pretty gilded coffins that are easy on the eye, all very clean despite the creeping rust.

The revivals are not clean. Ellie has had a lot of screaming, trashing patients, but she can usually do something for them. Put them out of their misery, if nothing else. But the first time she sees a young man, barely twenty, explode into a gelatinous brown paste, she doesn’t think to do that. She just stands and watches - she and Phineas both - as his screams turn to gurgles and his face dissolves into mush. Then the great white ship is silent once more.

_ Fascinating,  _ she wants to say, but can’t _ what a way to go. Painful, yes - but death isn’t supposed to be family-friendly. _

“Just as I feared,” Phineas dares to break the silence “My one success has emboldened me too much.”

“Exactly. Within a year, the captain survived a thirteen-foot fall, the Chairman’s giant death robot and blundering into a shooting range,” Ellie nods “Of course she didn’t succumb to some puny explosive cell death.”

Phineas’s frown deepens at the mention of his former assistant “I hope she’s safe.” the  _ but I’m happy she didn’t see this  _ went unsaid.

“I hope Halcyon is safe  _ from her,” _ the woman quips “Last I heard, the population of mantisaurs on Monarch has been decreasing suspiciously fast.”

(Ellie is always second best, has always been from the moment of her birth. Mother cared for herself first, Ellie second. Father cared for himself first, Ellie second. The captain recruited Parvati first, Ellie second. ADA loves Alex best, Phineas only taught her because the captain refused . . . it’s becoming a pattern. Ellie can’t let that continue)

“How unfortunate that these majestic creatures are not long for this world,” Phineas feigns deep sadness at the news. Then his gaze slips to the residue now coating the cryopod and his sorrow is no longer feigned. “Anyway. Back to the drawing board our mixture goes.”

Later that night, Ellie offers Phineas some vodka. Entirely unsurprisingly, he agrees. Ellie walks the plain, badly-lit hallways to the cryodeck.

Thousands of lives await for her to save them. Thousands of lives she can destroy or start again. This is the power for which she put up with the captain’s antics, Felix’s good-hearted foolishness and the Board’s growing hatred. Ellie had always wanted power over life and death - with a scalpel or a shotgun, it mattered not - but  _ this _ is a step beyond.

When these people wake - there is no  _ if. _ Three hundred thousand tries are more than enough - the first face they see will be Ellie’s. The first words they will hear of Halcyon will be hers to speak. The direction where they’ll be sent off will be coordinated with her. They will know her as their savior. They will listen to her words.

Sure, Phineas is the one truly saving the colonists. But he’s old, and very, very tired. The future of Halcyon will be shaped by Ellie. That is worth being second best, even if she will always remain under someone else’s shadow. History might remember Phineas and his pet captain as the heroes of Halcyon and saviors of the damned, but Ellie will be the one who makes real their plans of a better future.

But next time one of those colonists starts exploding, she’s gonna shoot. She doesn’t get paid enough to burst her eardrums for the greater good.


End file.
